ANNUNCIATION … MARY SAYS “YES”

On March 25 we, as a Church, celebrate the feast of the Annunciation.  This feast is the fountainhead of our salvation and the revelation of the mystery that was planned from all eternity: the Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin and Gabriel announces this grace” (Tropar of the Feast — March 25).

This feast of the Annunciation manifests the great plan God has for our salvation and the willingness of God to wait upon the response of Mary, the handmaid of the Lord.

The Gospel (Luke 1: 26-38) tells of the Archangel Gabriel’s visit and revelation to Mary in Nazareth. Mary’s reaction “How shall this be?” is not an expression of doubt in the power of God, but rather a respectful question. When the angel explains that the Holy Spirit shall come upon her and the power of the Most High overshadow her, Mary responds with humility and obedience.

This feast has two important aspects. The first turns our attention to Mary and her joyful willingness to be the handmaid of the Lord. We owe the Mother of God a great debt of gratitude which we fulfill by living as true sons and daughters of the Kingdom of her first-born Son. In our prayer we address the holy Mother of God by repeating the words of the angel’s greeting with tenderness and love: “Mary, you have found favor with God.”

The second aspect of the mystery of this feast is turned toward us. In the life of every Christian there will be divine annunciations — moments when God lets us know His will and intentions concerning us. All these annunciations must unite to become the one essential annunciation: the Annunciation that Jesus Christ can be born in us! Certainly not in the same way that he was conceived and brought into the world by the Virgin Mary; for that was a unique miracle that cannot be equaled. But each of us as Christians must allow God to take full possession of our being so that we may bear Christ to the world today.

We need also to remember that each authentic Annunciation is immediately followed by a Visitation (Luke 1: 39-56). The divine favor that has been granted to us will release grace in us to let it flow out to our brothers and sisters in some loving word or act.

The icon of this feast give us the first expression of the joy of the Incarnation, and helps us to enter into the “Good News of Grace.” The Archangel Gabriel is depicted in graceful motion as if dancing, holding a staff, the ancient symbol of a messenger. It is said that at the time of the Annunciation, Mary was occupied with spinning. Thus, the ball of thread in her hand is seen dropped as if forgotten in her surprise at the appearance of the angel and the power of the message.

St. Ephrem the Syrian says that the Mother of God conceived through her ear. She heard the word of God and kept it. We also can receive the seed of the word of God to hear the reality of the presence of Christ in our lives. When the seed of the word of God falls in the fertile soil of our heart and takes root, Christ is born within.

St. Ambrose expresses it well: “Every believing soul conceives and gives birth to the word of God; Christ, by means of our faith, is the fruit of us all, thus we are all mothers of Christ. The same Christ comes to be born in us and to dwell in us even as he did in Mary.”

Reprinted with permission from Awakening Our Treasures; published at the Sower, Stamford, Ct.